love poetry

VI IN SIGHT OF THE TOWN OF COCKERMOUTH

(Where the Author was born, and his Father's remains are laid.)

A point of life between my Parents' dust,
And yours, my buried Little-ones! am I;
And to those graves looking habitually
In kindred quiet I repose my trust.
Death to the innocent is more than just,
And, to the sinner, mercifully bent;
So may I hope, if truly I repent
And meekly bear the ills which bear I must:
And You, my Offspring! that do still remain,
Yet may outstrip me in the appointed race,

XXIII

Here by the windy docks I stand alone,
But yet companioned. There the vessel goes,
And there my friend goes with it; but the wake
That melts and ebbs between that friend and me
Love's earnest is of Life's all-purposeful
And all-triumphant sailing, when the ships
Of Wisdom loose their fretful chains and swing
Forever from the crumbled wharves of Time.

XXII

F OREBODINGS are the fiends of Recreance;
The master of the moment, the clean seer
Of ages, too securely scans what is,
Ever to be appalled at what is not;
He sees beyond the groaning borough lines
Of Hell, God's highways gleaming, and he knows
That Love's complete communion is the end
Of anguish to the liberated man.

" Pocahontas' body, lovely as a poplar, sweet as a red haw in November or a pawpaw in May — did she wonder? does she remember — in the dust — in the cool tombs? "

Carl S ANDBURG .

Carmen Eroticum.

Deare Lovelace, I am now about to prove
I cannot write a verse, but can write Love.
On such a subject as thy Booke, I cou'd
Write Books much greater, but not half fo good.
But as the humble tenant that does bring
A chicke or egges for's offering,
Is tane into the buttry, and does fox
Equall with him that gave a stalled oxe:
So, (since the heart of ev'ry cheerfull giver
Makes pounds no more accepted then a stiver,)
Though som thy prayse in rich stiles sing, I may

IV.

   Question . B Y what power was love confined
  To one object? Who can bind,
Or fix a limit to the free-born mind?

   Answer . Nature: for as bodies may
  Move at once but in one way,
So nor can minds to more than one love stray.

   Question . Yet I feel a double smart,
  Love's twinn'd flame, his forked dart.
Answer . Then hath wild lust, not love, possess'd thy heart.

   Question . Whence springs love? Ans. From beauty. Question . Why
  Should th' effect not multiply

III.

Stop the chafed boar, or play
 With the lion's paw, yet fear
 From the lover's side to tear
The idol of his soul away.

Though love enter by the sight
 To the heart, it doth not fly
 From the mind, when from the eye
The fair objects take their flight.

But since want provokes desire,
 When we lose what we before
 Have enjoy'd, as we want more,
So is love more set on fire.

Love doth with an hungry eye
 Glut on beauty; and you may
 Safer snatch the tiger's prey,

When Genius ended, all the lords rejoiced.
Never a better sermon, so they said,
Had been pronounced to them; nor since their birth
Had they a fuller pardon e'er received;
Nor ever such a just anathema
Against all men who might that pardon scorn
Had they e'er heard. They all at once adhered
Unto that creed and cried, " Fiat! Amen! "
Things being so appointed, they would brook
No more delay. Each one who had paid heed
To that sweet sermon loved its text so well
That word for word he locked it in his heart.

" ELOQUENT Genius, now I bid you seek
The host of barons of the God of Love,
Who, I am certain, is so fond of me,
So frank and debonair is he of heart,
That much he strives to serve me, and is drawn,
More than a steel to magnet, to my work.
My greetings give to him and my good friend
Dame Venus, and to all the barony
Except False Seeming, who associates
With hypocrites most dangerous and vain
And felons whom the Scriptures designate
As pseudo-prophets. Of Forced Abstinence
I've much suspicion that she's also proud

Venus her meinie summoned, then gave word
Her chariot to prepare; for in the mud
She would not go afoot. Her car was bright,
Rolling on four gold wheels begemmed with pearls.
In place of collared horses, six fair doves
She chose from out her dovecots for the shafts.
All things are ready, so she mounts her car
And starts to wage her war with Chastity.
The birds do not cavort, but beat their wings
And then are on their way; the air divides
Before them as they cleave it in their flight.
Betimes they come upon the battlefield.